Fans and critics welcome: UTM certificate aims to equip students for age of AI

Recent advances in artificial intelligence can feel jarring – rapid technological developments in the field aren’t widely understood and their social consequences have yet to be fully grasped. 

Students at the University of Toronto Mississauga will be able to grapple with some of those challenges this fall through the new Certificate in Artificial Intelligence and Society, which aims to have participants think critically about AI in today’s world. 

“Whether they are fans or critics of AI, students need to start with a clear understanding of how these systems work,” says Jennifer Nagel, acting chair of UTM’s department of philosophy, which is administering the certificate. 

“How exactly does a chatbot manage to engage in conversation so fluently that users can mistake it for a human? This is the kind of technical question our students want to explore. But they are equally gripped by the social question of what it means for humans if we start to prefer chatbots as conversational partners.” 

The certificate – which can be added to any undergraduate program of study – requires students to take a mix of courses on the technical and social dimensions of AI. Those courses cover a wide range of topics, from the basics of machine learning to the ethics of artificial intelligence. 

In a course on linguistics and computation, for example, students explore how computer systems can automatically infer aspects of meaning from raw text. Barend Beekhuizen, who is teaching the course this fall, explains that one aim is to build a step-by-step understanding of why Large Language Models and generative AI function so well on linguistic tasks.

Computer science courses eligible for the certificate include both basic and advanced options. 

A course on artificial intelligence literacy includes discussion of generative AI and Large Language Models, such as how they are trained and how they can affect education, as well as topics including game playing and supervised learning. Meanwhile, the more specialized introduction to artificial Intelligence course focuses on symbolic AI, which relies on specific rules and structure to make decisions. 

Joshua Jung, who is teaching both courses this fall, says students can expect to spend quite a bit of the symbolic AI class talking about how agents “solve puzzles, play games, and perform reasoning in a way that is completely different from GenAI or other machine learning methods.”

Another course counting towards the certificate, – drones, robots and artificial intelligence – is offered by the Institute for Communication, Culture, Information and Technology. 

“This course examines how automation reimagines the oldest human drives – love, labour, and war – through the intertwined histories of communication and control,” says Professor Jeremy Packer.

“Students encounter drones, robots and AI not as novelties, but as the latest expressions of enduring desires to mechanize intimacy, efficiency, and power.”

The new certificate, open for enrolment from Sept. 1, requires the completion of 2.0 credits in eligible courses.